Big Y, family owned market, finishes spruce-up at Southbridge store

SOUTHBRIDGE — Trending with the bigger, better, more of local competitors, Big Y Foods, a Southbridge grocer since 1996, is celebrating an $800,000 store renovation and product expansion.

The 52,000-square-foot market at 505 E. Main St. has been spruced up, inside and out.

Storewide upgrades include new fixtures and display cases in the produce, bakery, frozen and prepared food departments, as well as revamped seafood and butcher shops.

The store has increased product variety and shelf space for today's high-demand foods, such as gluten-free, Latino and organic produce.

The family-owned and operated business was founded in 1936 by brothers Paul and Gerald D'Amour, who named it after an intersection in Chicopee, where two roads converge to form a "Y."

Today, Big Y Foods Inc., headquartered in Springfield, is one of the largest independently owned supermarket chains in New England, with about 10,000 employees and 61 locations throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Randy Jarry, store director since 2009, said the store is able to compete with the new supermarkets in the area because of its employees "and the desire to deliver great customer service."

Mr. Jarry led a cake cutting and re-opening ceremony Friday.

Over the shoulders of the many store managers greeting customers as they entered was Amy Simons, tossing pizza dough for the lunch crowd.

The North Brookfield resident makes as many as 70 pizzas on a busy shift.

"My manager showed me how to do it, and my 2-year-old son loves knowing that when I go to work, this is what I do," she said.

Ms. Simons and her manager, Ronnie Theriault of Ware, are among the 110 people employed at the Southbridge store.

Karin Scheufler of Woodstock decorates as many as 40 cakes a day in the bakery department and has been doing so for seven years.

"At least I don't smell like fish when I go home; I smell like frosting," she said.

Mr. Jarry also said Big Y is a standout among competitors with its customer loyalty card, which delivers benefits beyond in-store sales, such as a discount gas program and savings on outside events.

Customer David Siebert of Holland said he and his wife, Kathaleen, became hooked on Big Y for its prepared-to-go fish and chips and chowder, yet they are no strangers to Ms. Scheufler's frosting.

"My wife has been shopping here since the store opened. When we got married last year, this is where we came for our wedding cake," he said.